Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s undersecretary Huseyin Cahitoglu was on Wednesday accused of money laundering during his third appearance in court after being arrested on suspicion of bribery earlier this month.

The accusation of money laundering is added onto the accusations of bribery, extortion, abuse of office and illegal possession of firearms, among others. He was on Wednesday remanded in custody for a further five days.

Last week, it had been alleged in court that he had demanded a bribe of €100,000 for “transactions to be carried out” within one of the north’s public institutions.

That allegation came on top of others levelled against him at his previous court hearing last week, when police officer Ethem Hoca had said that the Turkish Cypriot police believe Cahitoglu “unlawfully received €220,000 and £35,000 [€40,087]” for “transactions to be carried out in government offices in Nicosia between 2022 and 2024”.

Hoca said at the first hearing that Cahitoglu had offered a bribe of £200,000 (€229,071) to a civil servant “in exchange for signing a document to illegally lease land to a third party”, while he had also allegedly requested a £200,000 bribe from another person to “carry out illegal transactions”.

Additionally, Hoca told the court last week that a search of Cahitoglu’s house had turned up two nine-millimetre magazines and 50 rounds of ammunition in his bedroom.